Pebble Time has become the best funded project in the history of Kickstarter, and it still has more than three weeks left to run! The smartwatch surpassed its modest $500,000 funding target within 15 minutes of being released last week, and has now far exceeded the $13.3 million raised by the previous record holder - a portable drinks cooler with a speaker and facilities for recharging your smartphone.
Indeed, with 23 days to go at the time of writing, it has shot past the $10.2 million raised for the original Pebble smartwatch, which was the second best funded project in Kickstarter history, until the new launch. More than 60,000 people have now backed the Pebble Time, with a minimum pledge of $159 for the early bird buyers.
Read our first-look review of the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel
Pebble Time is the first colour smartwatch the company has produced, although it's still promising a week's worth of battery life because it uses e-paper technology instead of an LCD screen. Earlier this week, the company added a Steel model to the offering, further boosting its coffers. Those who jumped in for the plastic original are being allowed to upgrade to the more expensive Pebble Time Steel, although that's not due to ship until July, whilst the plastic model should be sent to backers in May.
The company also this week introduced the concept of smart straps for the Pebble watches, which could include fitness trackers, heart-rate monitors or extra batteries within the swappable wristbands.
The Pebble Time launch was well judged, arriving just ahead of what's likely to be the most significant smartwatch launch of 2015: the Apple Watch. First unveiled last autumn, Apple's first smartwatch is expected to go on sale next month, although it will be considerably more expensive than Pebble's cheapest Time models and will also require users to own an iPhone, whilst the Pebble can be paired with any Android or Apple smartphone.
The 10 biggest Kickstarter projects ever
1. Pebble Time ($15.3 million at time of writing)
2. Coolest Cooler ($13.3m)
3. Pebble smartwatch ($10.3m)
4. Exploding Kittens card game ($8.7m)
5. Ouya video games console ($8.6m)
6. Pono music player ($6.2m)
7. Veronica Mars movie project ($5.7m)
8. Reading Rainbow interactive books ($5.4m)
9. Torment: Tides of Numenera game ($4.2m)
10. Project Eternity game ($4.0m)